Tackle
by Ozlex
Summary: Tony has a particularly bad case and pretending everything's alright causes devastating consequences. Tony centric whumper with a little Tabby
1. Chapter 1

_**I don't own anything inn NCIS **_

_**Ok this story is a Tony centric whumper but I've also tried to add some Tabby in there. Nothing major though mind. This is my second NCIS story so I hope you enjoy… and try not to judge too hard please. **_

_**I'd like to thank fantastic Super Em for being a fantastic Beta **_

Tackle

After a hell of a case, it was the most satisfying feeling to confront the culprit. There were three things in this world that created a little bloom of warmth in the pit of Tony's stomach. The first was pizza and a movie, the second was hot women jogging without bras and the third was watching a murderer squirm when they finally realized the jig was up and that they'd be spending a long time in jail.

Unfortunately the little bloom of warmth from finishing today's case never quite blossomed. Instead of saying "you got me" like Tony liked, today's culprit had to be a runner.

This meant it was up to Tony to frantically chase the enormously built and surprisingly nimble man for what seemed hundreds of blocks, all the while knowing Gibbs would head him off around the next corner after having driven the car there.

As well as being large and nimble, it seemed this murderer also had a brain larger than the common ape. Watching the man run into an alley and knowing full well Gibbs would be at the end, Tony sprinted across the street, narrowly missing several collisions with cars and pedestrians.

He was panting heavily at this point, but the end to this long….LONG run was at the end of the alley and Tony couldn't be happier. Approaching the entrance to the alley, he knew the scum bag couldn't be too far ahead… perhaps though Gibbs already had him.

Tony was just glad this case would be over. It had been long, tedious…. and devastating. Due to a lack of evidence the slippery bastard had killed two more victims before they caught him.

Rounding the corner into the alleyway, Tony's mind was already in party mode for the after-hell-case celebration he and Abby had planned, when a tonne of bricks hit him in the side.

This scum bag was smart. He hadn't run up the alley like a mouse to a cheese trap or a fly into a Venus flytrap; he had rounded the corner and waited for Tony only to tackle him to the ground.

The bastard was large and as the pair flew into the awaiting pavement, Tony could feel every ounce. Pain exploded in his side and he distinctly heard a CRACK as 250 pounds of pure muscle pounded Tony's trim form into the unforgiving street. The man recovered quickly, raising a fist in anticipation of Tony's face, when the fist in question was suddenly captured.

Turning to face the new controller of his wrist, the murderer came face-to-face with one Leroy Jethro Gibbs. The sudden blanching of the man's face was almost comical, not that Tony noticed. All his efforts at the moment were going into breathing through the agonizing pain in his side.

Tony didn't even notice when the man was lead away, or when Ziva and Gibbs came to surround him.

The first thing Tony was truly aware of through his shallow breaths was Gibbs.

"DiNozzo… what the hell? You were supposed to chase him to us!"

When Tony tried and failed to answer through his troubled breathing and burning side, Gibbs almost looked concerned.

"DiNozzo, you alright?"

"Y-yeah boss…. Sorry boss!" Holding out his hand for a help-up, Tony was left hanging. Having confirmed that his senior field agent was in fact alright, Gibbs went back to the case.

Turning to Ziva for the hand up, Tony swayed on his feet for a minute before wrapping his arm around his chest with a slight groan.

"Are you really okay, Tony? That was quite the tackle."

"I'm g-good" Tony grunted before remembering, "But where were you David, superstar catcher and chaser that you are?"

Ziva shrugged, "I thought you could handle it."

Tony was truly touched that Ziva thought he was just as capable of catching the bad guy as she was…. until she added, "Plus you need the exercise."

Tony's face transformed into indignation as he followed her into the truck.

XXXXXX

Back at NCIS headquarters, the only activity Tony felt up to was sitting and groaning loudly. The ride back had been a new form of torture for him. Because of the tackle, Ziva had insisted on driving the truck which probably wasn't the best course of action. Every high speed bump and swerved turn sent pain shooting through his side. Tony didn't think he'd ever been so grateful to reach headquarters.

Luckily Gibbs wasn't in the squad room at the moment as he was in MTAC. If he had been, he would have surely ordered Tony to go see Ducky and to stop being so noisy.

As it was, Ziva had already told him to go see Duck, but since he didn't have to listen to her, he had just blown her off. With each groan came an annoyed glare in his direction from Ziva because of Tony's stubbornness.

Tony never saw the concerned expression crossing her face after each glare.

Gibbs walked into the room holding what Tony estimated was his sixth cup of coffee since 9 a.m. The coffee intake of the man had ceased to amaze Tony after a month working at NCIS, but how the cup magically arrived in his boss's hand when he had supposedly been in MTAC for two hours still got him.

Striding into the workspace and overseeing Ziva and her paperwork, Gibbs suddenly stopped in front of Tony.

Looking down at the man slouching in his chair, Gibbs raised an eyebrow, "DiNozzo, shouldn't you be doing something?"

Straightening in his chair in front of the boss wasn't the smartest move, as pain spread rapidly across his chest. Unfortunately, Tony couldn't suppress a grunt as he frantically clutched his side in an attempt to contain the fire that was his body.

Looking at Gibbs face he knew the man was five seconds away from ordering him to visit Ducky. There was no way he was going to spend the rest of his day being poked and prodded by the physician as he was bombarded with millions of boring facts.

Just before Gibbs opened his mouth, Tony used all his energy to stand up and quickly move to leave the room.

"Sure boss. You want me to go see how Abs is doing assembling the evidence. I'm on my way." Tony threw a wave over his back as he entered the elevator, leaving behind a room of worried faces.

In the elevator Tony slumped against the back wall, all pretenses of being painless left two floors up. With his arm securely wrapped around his burning ribs, Tony concentrated on taking small shallow breaths as he tried to get control over the pain.

When the elevator inevitably reached Abby's lab, Tony groaned realizing that the pretenses would have to come back on for the Goth's sake. Besides, Abby was a gazillion times the worrier either Gibbs or Ziva were.

Pushing off from the back wall, Tony stood motionless for a moment as the entire elevator spun around him.

"Get it together DiNozzo."

Finally, when the world was still… well still enough, Tony walked into Abby's lab, a forced smile plastered on his face. The blaring music was kicking the headache up a notch but there was no way he would tell Abby that.

The screaming match disguised as music had Abby twirling her pigtails in time with the beat. She hadn't noticed Tony yet, which was lucky as at that moment the room took another major tilt to the left. Grabbing the wall for support, Tony tried to wait it out. Unfortunately Abby had somehow heard the commotion through the music and was turning around.

Quickly leaning against the wall in what he hoped was a casual sprawl, Tony asked, "Is it the song which started the pigtails twirling or the pigtails twirling which started the song?"

"TONY!" Upon seeing him, Abby sprang off her chair to run full pelt towards him. Realizing what the caffeinated girl was going to do, Tony was left to grin and bear it.

'_Boy this is going to hurt_,' He thought just before Abby threw her arms around him and squeezed the living daylight out of him.

As hard as Tony tried, he just couldn't suppress a grunt of pain. It probably would have been a scream if he had any air left to scream with. Perhaps it was then fortunate Abby had squeezed all the air from him in her "hug".

Pulling back Abby began gushing, "Tony are you alright? I heard what happened."

Breathing shallowly Tony was still surprised enough to ask through pain, " W-what? Ho-ow?"

"I told her. It was some tackle." Looking up, Tony watched as McGee came out of the side.

"Probie, when did you get here?"

"What do you mean I've been hear the whole time" McGee looked confusedly in Tony's direction.

_Damn, he must be really out of it to not even notice the man on the other side of a glass door._ "Riiight, must have missed you." Chuckling, Tony couldn't suppress a second grunt. Grabbing his ribs Tony wished fervently that the Elephant now situated on them would get OFF.

"Tony…. you are NOT all right. Come here right now and sit down." Taking him by the arm Abby led Tony over to the computer chair. Pathetically, this didn't take much effort, neither did getting him to sit. Tony practically fell into the chair, not telling Abby that his legs had given out at the same time as she pushed him into the seat.

"Gee, Tony you really don't look so good." McGee came over to stand besides Abby as the pair scrutinized Tony's appearance. Being forensic geniuses they could do this very well. Luckily Tony was an undercover genius and had no trouble hiding the pain he was in. Okay, well maybe a little trouble.

"I'm fine Probie… and besides, Abby and I have plans. Don't you have anywhere to be?" Tony looked expectantly at McGee, ordering him to drop it. "Wait what am I saying – it's you, of course you don't."

"Fine… fine I'm leaving. See-ya Abs." With that McGee walked out of the room throwing one final glance in Tony's direction before exiting.

"So - we going to start this 'Bad Case Bash' or what?"

Looking up Tony realized Abby was still staring at him. Actually it looked like Abby hadn't moved a muscle or even blinked since he sat down.

Beginning to feel like bug under microscope, Tony nervously asked, "What?"

Breaking the spell, Abby pointed a finger in Tony's face accusingly.

"You're hurt… we are not having any "Bad Case Bash" tonight. I'm calling Ducky."

As she reached for the phone Tony grabbed her wrist looking into her face with his best puppy dog expression and begged, "Please Abs, don't. I'm fine really… all I need is a bit of pizza and a good movie. I swear the only thing we'll be doing is sitting back and slacking off."

Just for good measure Tony added, "Please Abby, don't let me be tormented further today with Ducky's prodding and rambling."

Abby gave Tony one last suspicious glare before her hardened expression melted away, "You better not be lying to me Anthony Donatello Dinozzo."

Tony flashed her a grin before adding, "Would I do that?"

Of course Abby who could never not answer a question even when it was reciprocal went on, "Would Gibbs drink a cup of coffee 5 minutes after finishing his last? Would Ziva stab a guy who looked at her funny? Would McGee…"

"Yes, yes, you have a point, but I swear all I want to do is sit back and let the movies and pizza come."

Abby smiled, giving Tony one more hug before bringing out two bean bags, a stack of pizzas and three Caff-Pows (all Abby's). When everything was in place, she came over looking expectantly for Tony to move to the designated movie watching area.

In truth, Tony didn't even know if he could get to the designated movie watching area by himself, and when Abby leant down to lend a hand he was supremely grateful. To keep up appearances Tony complained the whole way to the bean bags. Abby just ignored every complaint and kissed him on the top of the head before explaining, "Tony, tonight I'm taking care of you, but I'll let you pick the first movie."

Tony looked into Abby's concerned face and grinned, "Really?"

"Sure, I wouldn't want you to get bored."

"I could never get bored with you Abby."

Tony picked "The Faculty", being in the mood for an alien invasion at a high school, and soon the two were laid back on the floor in Abby's lab watching Elijah Wood have his legs slammed around a pole on the big screen on the wall.

When Abby offered Tony a piece of pizza with everything on it, it took all his will-power just to look at it. Plastering on a smile and accepting the piece, Tony took a small bite, all the while fighting the rising nausea.

Tony's paleness did not escape Abby's notice and as the movie wound on she became increasingly worried. Tony was hardly even aware what was happening on the screen in front of him constantly having to fight back grimaces of pain. He hurt and Tony was damned if he'd let Abby suffer along with him.

Excusing himself to go to the head, Tony began to extricate himself from the bean bag only to fall back into the mess of cushioning.

XXXXXX

Abby was immediately on her feet, movie running in the background as she crouched down in front of the stricken agent. Tony was covered in cold sweat and when Abby placed a hand on his shoulder she could feel the fine tremors course through his body.

"Tony, what's wrong?….TONY!"

Enough was enough, Tony was obviously in pain and the time for Ducky had arrived no matter how much Tony complained.

What really got Abby worrying though was when he looked up at her with a pained expression and said quietly as if even speaking took too much effort,

"Abby, I think I need to see Ducky now."

Abby reeled, becoming panicked. Tony never wanted to see Ducky, at least not in his doctor-capacity; it must be really bad. Abby quickly connected to Ducky in autopsy, where the doctor was presently up to his elbows in a man's innards.

"Ducky…DUCKY you have to get here right now." Abby was in full hysterics now, the three caffpows probably not helping.

"My dear child, whatever is the problem?" Even though Ducky spoke with a calm voice, he was moving quickly to get partially cleaned up, the panic and urgency in Abby's voice spurring him to move faster.

"It's Tony…. He's hurt and-and I think it's bad."

"Dear me, Jethro told me young Anthony had been tackled. Unfortunately I had already started this autopsy. I was going to see him as soon as I finished." Ducky sighed, looking dejected, "I should have trusted Jethro's instincts and gone right away… too late now. I'll be there in no time at all Abigail."

Abby cut the connection when she was sure Ducky was on his way and immediately called for an ambulance. Even though Ducky was coming from the looks of Tony there was no time to waste.

XXXXXX

The room had begun to spin around him and Tony was finding it harder and harder to take a breath. Trying for shallow small breaths didn't provide nearly enough oxygen, but anything more hurt too much.

Raising his hand to rub the black spots from his eyes, Tony noticed that his hand was now shaking quite extensively… and damn it was cold in here!

The next thing Tony knew between the pain in his chest and the lack of oxygen was Abby's tear stained face, helping him into a more comfortable position.

"Tony… why did… you let me believe you?" She asked between wet sobs.

Tony grimaced both in pain and at the worry in Abby's eyes.

"I'm s-sorry Abs" Tony spoke so quietly Abby hardly heard him. Tony felt his breath catch and he began to cough. Fire speared through his body with each agonizing hack. Tony didn't notice when Ducky arrived, placing a hand on his back and helping him upright or when Gibbs arrived, having had a gut feeling that his senior field agent was in trouble.

Tony only knew the pain that had become his chest. Thankfully blessed darkness arrived and his body went limp, his hand falling away from his mouth.

Abby gasped and began a renewed bout of tears into Gibbs' shoulder at the sight of the bright red blood covering the unconscious man's hand.

TBC

AN: He he he.. don't you just love a good cliffy.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The ambulance arrived in short order, EMT's loading Tony onto a gurney before rushing him out the door. Being Tony's next of kin Gibbs was the lucky one who got to ride with him. Abby was secretly jealous but also knew it was for the best. Gibbs could deal with anything and he would make sure everything went alright for Tony.

Nothing bad would happen to Tony while Gibbs was there. But then something bad did happen to Tony. As hard as Abby tried she couldn't get the image of bright red blood from her mind.

Abby was no stranger to blood….she loved the stuff. Even looking around her lab she could see the ultra cool pictures of blood splatter covering her walls. This was different though… this was Tony's blood. Tony's blood only had one place to be and that was inside Tony.

Turning to Ducky Abby could see the concerned expression on his face through her tear blurred vision.

"Ducky….Is Tony going to be alright?"

Ducky sighed placing comforting hands on her shoulders and giving her a sympathetic look, "I'm not sure dear… but Jethro is with him and he won't let anything happen to the boy."

"But he coughed blood Ducky…that is so not good"

Abby sniffed loudly before asking in a small voice, "What's wrong with him Ducky?" As soon as the question was in the open Abby wanted to take it back. She wanted so badly to pretend that everything was dandy. But it wasn't and she had to be strong for Tony's sake…she had to know.

Ducky looked away before going into doctor mode, "Well judging by the fact he was going into shock and the blood like you said I would say he's either punctured a lung or has internal bleeding….. but most likely in this case I believe the poor boy has done both."

Abby's eyes welled with tears again, "That's some t-tackle."

Ducky wrapped his arms comfortingly around the distraught forensic scientist.

"Yes, your right, it was some tackle." Ducky chuckled sadly. "Come now dear, I'll drive you to the hospital."

Abby nodded before being led out the door of her lab. Looking back Abby could see the credits begin to play as the movie came to an end on the wall.

XXXXXX

Swimming in an ocean of black, the world was feeling like a wonderful place at the moment. He was peaceful, warm and comfortable and he really didn't want that to change. The only drawback to his new found happy place was the incessant noise just at the edge of his awareness.

He couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it sounded familiar. As he concentrated harder the ocean of black comfort slowly dissipated and the noise slowly became clearer.

'_Damn' _it was starting to hurt the farther away from his happy place he drifted…. But that noise was so familiar and even more comforting then numbness.

Before he knew what was happening, Tony was aware that he was in a bed. Judging by the antiseptic smell and hard pillow he was in a hospital. Something was out of place though for a hospital.

Usually when he woke up in one the only noise he could hear was the beeping of monitors but instead he realized he was listening to a constant stream of a one-sided conversation. Suddenly his brain got into gear and recognition struck that the voice was Abby. He also discovered that the comfortable weight to one side was a body.

The first sign that Tony was awake wasn't a flutter of eyelids or an agonized groan but instead the wide grin that spread across his face. He was in bed with Abby and really it didn't matter that he was in hospital. When Abby realized he might be awake, Tony regretfully felt the weight move of the bed.

"Tony…Tony, are you awake? Why are you grinning?"

Opening his eyes took more of an effort then he thought possible, but was well worth it when Abby's face came blearily into view.

"A-Abby?" Tony was annoyed to discover his voice was so raspy as to almost be unintelligible.

"Yeah I'm here"

"W-why…", Tony coughed a bit and was delightfully happy when Abby held a cup of water and a straw for him to drink from. Unfortunately she took it away much too early for his liking.

When his throat and voice were under control Tony tried his question again.

"Were you lying on my bed?"

Abby scuffed his hair and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead giggling, "You know its where you want me."

Tony responded with his own devious grin before another cough overtook him. For such a small cough it certainly produced a lot of pain. The fire spread quickly to encompassing his entire side. Biting on his lip didn't quite stop the moan of pain which escaped them but thankfully he was able to control his urgent desire to curl around the pain. Any movement would most likely expand the pain tenfold.

Usually when he woke up in hospital he was too drugged to feel any pain but the cotton mouth he was experiencing told him this time he wasn't so lucky. The drugs had worn off enough for the pain to have a strong grasp on his body obviously.

Tony hadn't noticed when Abby left the room but the next thing he knew she was back with Gibbs and a nurse in tow. The nurse moved quickly to the IV port and injected the glorious needle of numbness into the port.

As much as Tony hated needles he though he could live with this one. Besides it's not like it was directly injected into him, only into an IV port.

Gibbs and Abby stood over to one side of the bed looking concernedly down at the agent in pain.

"Hey, Boss."

Gibb's expression turned suddenly hard and Tony became suddenly afraid, this was not a sympathetic Gibbs.

"Dinozzo, you better have a good explanation for being such an idiot?"

"Boss?"

"You've already got yourself a month of desk work and as it is I'm still considering whether to shoot you or not."

With the reprimand finished….for now; Gibbs placed a hand on Tony's shoulder. The anger was replaced with a fear that touched Tony like nothing else. Before Tony could speak through the stunning revelation that Gibbs actually cared he had turned and left the room.

Turning confusedly to Abby, "Abby, what happened?"

"Don't mind Gibbs, Tony he was just worried. We all were."

"No I seriously don't know what happened. One minute we're watching a movie and I'll grant you I was a bit sore… but the next thing I know I wake up in a hospital."

Abby looked down nervously. Boy, she had hopped not to be the one to tell him this. It seemed fate had played its hand and it really sucked.

"Well for starters it was more then just a bit of bruising. And by the way I'm totally angry with you as well for telling me you were fine."

Tony turned on his most ridiculous puppy dog expression which no matter the circumstances always made her smile, "I'm srry"

When he was sure Abby was all cheered up Tony let the act drop and the two stood grinning at each other for a few minutes until the serious situation dropped back into place.

Abby winced looking guilty but for the life of him Tony didn't know why. Perhaps it was just because she was telling him really bad news.

"You kinda had a broken rib on top of internal bleeding…" Tony groaned at the damage to his body but was wholly unprepared when Abby continued, "Which turned into a punctured lung, a broken rib and internal bleeding. But that's all…. And the doctors said the internal bleeding was really minimal. Plus the surgery only took a couple of hours so it couldn't have been that bed."

Abby stopped herself from further rambling when she noticed Tony's shocked expression. His jaw had dropped so much that his open mouth could fit an orange.

"Tony…ah are you alright?"

"Well obviously not as alright as I thought." Even though he was still slightly shocked at the revelations about his injuries Tony still managed a goofy smile."

Tony sighed deeply and felt and answering twinge in his ribs, but other then that it was, all good. In fact Tony couldn't feel much at all realizing that all the hurt he had woken up with was now completely number.

Looking up into Abby's face again his goofy smile grew and Abby couldn't help but answer with her own goofy grin wondering what was going through his mind.

"Abby….. H-have I ever told you how pretty I thnk you are? And hot… I mean ayone with atoo's like yous got goes b-bynd pretty into the hot …. Don y-ou thin….."

Tony slowly trailed off being drawn quickly in sleep by the effective painkillers. When his eyes were finally closed, the pain lines disappeared and his breathing evened out Abby knew he was asleep.

Gently kissing him on the forehead Abby left a dark lipstick mark behind, not caring about the evidence of her affection. Settling into the chair beside his bed Abby couldn't help but giggle to herself, "Silly, Tony….I've always known."

XXXXXX

The first thing he noticed before returning to true consciousness was the smell of hot coffee which brought with it countless memories of his boss. Opening his eyes though all Tony could see was a newspaper covering the face of whoever was reading. Not that it mattered if he could see his face or not, Tony knew it was Gibbs anyway.

What really surprised him though was the date on the newspaper. When he had last woken to find Abby he had never asked what the day was. It seemed three days had passed since he'd been tackled. _'Wow, where did the time go' _Tony wasn't new to losing days at a time to injuries but it still never ceased to annoy him.

At the sound of movement on the bed Gibbs put his newspaper to the side, observing his senior field agent with a keen eye. Dark circles hollowed his eyes and Gibbs didn't think he'd ever seen the young man look so tired. What really worried him were the creases at the corners of his eyes showing that he was in pain. _'Damn nurses couldn't get the doses right if they tried.' _

"You done sleeping valuable working time away, Dinozzo?"

Tony couldn't help a yawn, before answering, "Won't happen again boss."

Gibbs scoffed before continuing, "They're discharging you tomorrow, Dinozzo…. So you have till then to come up with a good explanation of why you didn't tell anyone you were injured."

Gibbs face turned into an angry cloud as he thought about Tony being injured and not telling anyone. In truth he was angry at himself for not forcing the boy to see a doctor after the tackle. Of course he didn't tell Tony this; it didn't do anything for Tony to think he was angry at him.

Tony gulped, imagining all the things Gibbs would have install for Tony when he got better.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I know I'm a terrible terrible author who leaves her fans hanging for months on end. Not much happens in this chapter but do not fear because there is more to come and stuff actually happens in the next chapter :D

Chapter 3

Tomorrow came all too soon… yet not soon enough in Tony's mind. As glad as he was to be released from his least favourite place in the World, Gibb's threat still lay heavily on his mind. There really was no excuse for hiding an injury from his boss.

'Ah, hell' Tony thought, at least Gibbs wouldn't beat him to a pulp until after he was properly healed. That left him a good 2 weeks of life left. Seeing Abby arrive in the doorway to his room he knew exactly how he would be spending them as well.

"You ready to break out of this joint yet, Tony?" Abby asked her head tilted to one side making one raven pig tail drape over her shoulder.

"Spring me now please; otherwise you might just have to do a roundabout trip to the mental ward." Tony flashed Abby his customary grin before attempting unsuccessfully to get out of bed.

Falling back into the mattress Tony couldn't help the grunt of pain that escaped his lips.

"Nah ah Tony. You get to ride out of here in style. Ducky's bringing your carriage now."

Before he even had a chance to wonder what Abby was on about, Ducky came through the door pushing a wheel chair.

"How are you my dear boy, are you ready to leave this most excellent hospital."

"A wheel chair, Ducky…… do I have to?" Tony knew he sounded like a whining five year old, but seriously a man had to have some self respect.

"Hospital policy, I'm afraid Anthony. You should feel lucky; I remember a time when it wasn't. Some patients were determined to walk out of the door on their own two feet. Well I'm sure you can imagine what came of that. It seemed that every second patient released had to be sent straight back to a hospital bed after falling down before they even made it out the door. Of course I've personally never had this problem. The dead don't generally walk anywhere." Ducky finally finished with a chuckle.

Before Ducky even finished one sentence of his seemingly never ending monologue, Tony had already decided that getting in the chair was much less torturous than Ducky's lecture.

"Fine I'll get in the chair" Tony grumbled, as Ducky continued to chuckle. Although he had agreed to ride the wheel chair out of the hospital the act of actually doing so proved quite complicated. It took all three of them to finally get Tony in the chair. Abby helped him into a sitting position while Ducky held the chair still. As hard as he tried to suppress them a few grunts of pain still escaped during the process.

By the time Tony was actually sitting in the chair his face was covered in a fine sheen of sweat and the pain was clearly visible in his scrunched expression. Still Ducky ever the optimists had to add "Well, that's wasn't so bad now was it Anthony?"

Grimacing Tony replied, "Yeah, Ducky…. piece of cake!"

The journey out of the hospital proved uneventful after the effort it took to get Tony into the hospital chair. Tony couldn't help but notice that three nurses blew him goodbye kisses. Unfortunately his travelling companions were both scientists who were paid to notice and deduct things. Each time he received an air kiss he also received 5 minutes of merciless teasing.

"So Tony… was that another one of the nurses who gave you a sponge bath? I really see a connection between the two of you. I mean she even shares you scruffy chin."

"Now Abigail, her chin hairs weren't that noticeable"

"Thank you Ducky." Tony replied resentfully. At least someone had the maturity not to make fun of his unpleasant hospital experiences.

"Well, they weren't as noticeable as her mono-brow as I hear they are called these days." Abby could hold her laughter back no more and let loose with the suppressed giggles.

Tony couldn't believe it. The whole point of having friends visit you in the hospital was for them to make you feel better. Not humiliate you. Tony grumbled all the way to the parking lot while Ducky and Abby continued their jests.

The friend who greeted him at the car was another who didn't make him feel any better. In fact the sight of this friend made him desperate to be readmitted.

"No…NO, please tell me you're not driving"

"Don't tell me, you're afraid, Tony"

Tony could only stare in abject horror as none other than Ziva grabbed the keys and moved towards the driver's side. Wasn't it bad enough that he had been bleeding on the inside for a day without him having to be tortured again by Ziva's reckless driving?

Still Tony couldn't let anyone know he was terrified about all the pain he would be in when Ziva took her wild turns and swerves. Putting on his cocky grin for the second time that day, Tony replied, "Ah NO… course not!!! Why would I be, Zi-Va?"

"Not to worry Tony, I'll go real slow on you… I promise"

"I feel soooo much better"

"Really Tony, you don't have to worry she knows how much pain you're still in. She even swore to Gibb's she would drive carefully, and you NEVER break a promise to Gibb's." Abby said as she came to stand behind Tony and place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"So why is that even necessary… I mean, why aren't you or Ducky driving me?"

Abby look uncertain for a bit before reluctantly telling Tony the reason he would be at the hands of a lunatic, " Well you see… Ducky and I are needed to work on the case."

"What? I didn't hear about any case."

"That's because Gibbs didn't want you to know about it."

"He doesn't want me?"

At the hurt look on Tony's face Abby took immediate pity on the man, hurrying to provide the much needed reassurance, "No nothing like that Tony, He just wants you to get better."

"Well will you at least tell me what the case is about?"

"Nope, sorry can't. Gibb's said not to tell you, and I cannot… No I will not betray Gibb's."

Tony put his most charming smile on before begging the goth, "Pretty please with an upside down bat and a skull choker?"

Abby look indignant as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Anthony Dinozzo, are you asking me to betray Gibb's?"

"Ahhh…No"

"Good you better not have been, because if you were I want to remind you I'm a forensic scientist. I have ways of making people disappear, you wouldn't believe."

Tony shivered, he couldn't help it. As cute as Abby was most of the time she could really be scary when she wanted.

"Hey are the two of you ready or what?" Ziva called from the other side of the government issued car where she had been chatting to Ducky.

The time had come for Tony to actually get in the car and he wasn't looking forward to it. Again it took Ducky's help to get him in the vehicle. Even moving the short distance between the wheelchair and the front seat left Tony covered in sweat and panting lightly.

As Ziva moved into the front seat she couldn't help but ask, "Hey, Tony are you ok?"

"Yeah, just peachy", Tony replied, his pain creased face an obvious contradiction to the statement.

As Ducky closed his door Tony caught a final look at Abby twining a pigtail around her finger and a worry line wrinkling her brow.

Unfortunately all thoughts of Abby flew out of his head when the engine turned on. Tony hadn't thought the sound of one of his most favourite things in the world could bring such terror until now. The deep rumble of the engine reminded Tony of his current situation and he was terrified.

Luckily Ziva was paying attention to exiting the car park and didn't notice the fear in Tony's eyes. If she had Tony suspected like any predator when they're confronted with prey she would have attacked without mercy.

When Tony caught sight of the first corner he couldn't help but close his eyes in anticipation of the pain he would be in when she swerved around it like she usually did. Tony felt a slight force as his body continued on it forward momentum but other than that nothing. It was the tamest corner Ziva had taken since she first got behind the driver's seat of a car when she was thirteen.

Tony couldn't believe his eyes when Ziva drove the entire trip like an elderly lady. He could vouch for his still aching insides when he said he was extremely thankful.

"What??? The speed limit is 60. I'm doing 60." Ziva responded when she finally took notice of the strange looks Tony was shooting her.

"Sure, and since when have you ever paid attention to silly little things like traffic laws."

Ziva took the next corner slightly faster as revenge. 'Oh well, I guess I deserved it' Tony thought to himself.


End file.
